During reloading of shotgun shells, a properly sized wad is placed into a shell. A wad is part of a shell between the powder and the shot. The wad provides a tight seal which permits expanding gas from the burning powder to push the shot column out of the barrel with maximum velocity. Modern wads (aka “wad columns”) combine a shot cup and seal into one integrally formed plastic structure. Modern wads are available with specific heights and diameters to fit into specific size shells.
To seat a wad, it is pressed firmly into the base of the hull. When seated with a reloading tool or machine, a ram presses the wad into an aligned hull that has already been re-sized, de-primed, re-primed and loaded with the correct amount of powder. A wad must be seated correctly on top of the powder, with the top of the fingers of the wad below the crimp line of the shell. A cup formed by fingers of the properly seated wad then receives a correct amount of shot, i.e., generally spherical pellets of a determined diameter dense metal (e.g., typically lead). Then the top edge of the shell is crimped, typically through a multi-step process to achieve a desired closure configuration.
A modern wad consists of three parts, the powder wad, the cushion, and the shot cup, which may be separate pieces or be one part. The powder wad is the base of the wad that acts as a gas seal, and is placed firmly over the powder. The cushion is the interface between the powder wad and shot cup. The cushion may compress under pressure, to act as a shock absorber and minimize deformation of the shot. The cushion may also act as a spacer, taking up as much space as is needed between the powder wad and the shot. The shot cup, which is the last part of the shell, holds the shot together as it moves down the barrel. Shot cups have slits on the sides to form bendable fingers or petals (“fingers”). The fingers peel open after leaving the barrel, allowing the shot to continue on in flight undisturbed.
Wads are typically sold in large volumes (100s or 1000s) in a box or bag. During handling and storage, many of the fingers of wads are bent, often urged together. Even a slight bending can precipitate a reloading problem.
When a wad is pressed into a shell by a ram of a reloading machine, a side of the ram may snag fingers of the wad, particularly if the fingers are bent inwardly, even just slightly. The inward bending may be so slight as to be unnoticed by an operator. Such snagging is particularly commonplace and problematic with narrow diameter wads (e.g., wads for 0.410 bore shells). When a ram snags a wad finger, the ram may bend over and crush the finger in the shot cup. Such deformation not only prevents shot from filling the shot cup, but also may prevent proper seating and severely compromise flight of the shot.
To reduce the risk of snagging, heretofore, meticulous individuals have inserted a finger into a shot cup and rotated their finger in the shot cup before inserting the wad into a wad guide of a reloading machine. While somewhat effective for reducing risk of snagging, such a procedure is time consuming and eventually leads to finger sores, especially during a session of reloading hundreds of shells. Also, a finger is an asymmetrical and imprecise tool and does not produce a desired splaying of the wad fingers. Thus, when a finger is removed, a previously inwardly bent finger may return towards an inwardly bent position.
What is needed is a tool and methodology for splaying (i.e., bending outwardly) fingers of a wad before the wad is inserted into a wad guide for seating. A ram will not snag splayed fingers during insertion. Splayed fingers will bend into the form of a shot cup upon insertion.
The invention is directed to overcoming one or more of the problems and solving one or more of the needs as set forth above.